Compressed Ultrafast Photography

Ultrafast optical imaging plays a crucial role in both fundamental scientific research and technology development. However, current high-speed imaging techniques suffer from various limitations, such as low imaging speeds, a limited number of frames acquired, and the need for strict event repetition (as is the case with the pump-probe method). These limitations have been addressed by a groundbreaking technology called compressed ultrafast photography (CUP). By integrating the streak camera technology and compressed sensing concept, CUP is capable of observing light-speed dynamics in real-time, recording at least 300 frames in a single shot, and achieving speeds of up to 10 trillion frames per second (Tfps). Unlike other imaging methods, CUP does not rely on active illumination and can achieve in principle 100% photon throughput. This highly flexible and scalable technology also offers high spatiotemporal resolution, ultrahigh phase sensitivity, and five-dimensional recording. CUP’s recent upgrade, compressed ultrafast spectral photography (CUSP), has pushed imaging speeds to 219 Tfps and expanded the number of frames to more than 1000. CUP and its family of technologies have the potential for exciting applications and significant discoveries in fields such as physics, chemistry, biology, materials science, nonlinear photonics, and laser optics.